Winter Light (1963)

☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ½

Winter Light (1963) – I. Bergman

Stark in its presentation and wintry in its content, Ingmar Bergman’s second film in his “faith” trilogy shows us a clergyman, Tomas (Gunnar Björnstrand), who is paralysed by doubts over God’s existence.  Specifically, if God does exist, why does He (or She?) remain silent despite the tragedy and cruelty in the world? Or, alternately, given the presence of tragedy and cruelty and no sight of God, He must not exist (and therefore the presence of these horrors makes a lot more sense).  In his previous film (Through a Glass Darkly, 1961), Bergman offered the possibility that the presence of human love is evidence of God’s existence – but here he rejects that contention.  Or perhaps it is only Tomas, still grieving his wife’s death four years earlier, who personally rejects both love (from Ingrid Thulin as Märta, the local schoolteacher) and God. He certainly makes a mess of things when he is visited by a man, Mr. Persson (Max von Sydow), who is despondent over the possibility of nuclear destruction; Tomas confides his doubts about God and Persson promptly leaves and kills himself.  Having to face this (and the body by a wintry stream) paralyses Tomas further – though he persists with the routines of religious life. Is this because he still has hope…or faith? Or because his assistant has told a story about Jesus’s own worries about being forsaken?  We don’t know. Bergman and cinematographer Sven Nykvist present the simple settings (the church and Tomas’s office, primarily) plainly. A few scenes stand out:  1) Tomas outdoors “protecting” Persson’s body, shot from a distance, with the river drowning out all other sounds, adding a further sense of isolation to the proceedings; 2) Thulin’s long monologue to the camera, shot in a brave close-up, reading a heartbreaking and lacerating letter to Tomas.  In the end, we feel the angst of Tomas (and Bergman) palpably – but there is still no sign from (or of) God.